THE REPUBLICANS: THE CONVENTION IN NEW YORK -- THE VICE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER

THE REPUBLICANS: THE CONVENTION IN NEW YORK -- THE VICE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER; Cheney Daughter's Political Role Disappoints Some Gay Activists

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: August 30, 2004

Mary Cheney, the daughter and chief campaign manager of Vice President Dick Cheney, had just slipped out of the room at a Davenport, Iowa, town hall meeting last week when her father publicly acknowledged for the first time that she was openly lesbian and that he disagreed with the president's support for an amendment banning same-sex marriage.

If Ms. Cheney was gratified by his remarks about gay marriage, she has not let it show, two campaign aides said. But aides say she was clearly displeased the next day to find the cameras of the traveling press corps craning for shots of her face.

''She does not seek the limelight,'' said Mary Matalin, an adviser to Mr. Cheney and friend of the family. ''It just goes with the beast that if you are in the public eye, it is going to happen. But she does not seek to be in the public eye.''

As Ms. Cheney arrived in New York with her father yesterday for the Republican convention -- a traditional showcase for candidates' adoring families -- her role in her father's campaign is becoming a subject of intense speculation on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate. Some on each side contend that the campaign is using her presence and Mr. Cheney's comments to soften its image and appeal to moderate voters at a time when the nation's attention is focused on the convention.

Social conservatives like Gary Bauer, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination four years ago, complain that Mr. Cheney's public support for his daughter ''demoralizes some sections of the base that they need in an election where we could all be counting chads again.''

Gay rights advocates, on the other hand, accuse Ms. Cheney of selling out gays to aid her father's campaign.

''There is a profound sense of bewilderment bordering on betrayal,'' said Matt Foreman, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce. ''How is it possible that you could be working so hard for an administration that is so against your basic life, so against you and any family aspirations you might have, and against your people? I understand father-daughter ties, but it seems impossible to reconcile.''

Ms. Cheney, through a campaign spokeswoman, declined to be interviewed.

Ms. Cheney sat in a box with her father and mother, Lynne Cheney, at the 2000 convention, and in addition to working with him behind the scenes throughout the week she will likely be with him at the convention again this year. Lynne Cheney will introduce the vice president, and their other daughter, Elizabeth, is scheduled to speak tomorrow at a campaign event for women. But Mary Cheney will not have a speaking role, aides say. Over the weekend, she and her sister threw a 40th anniversary party for their parents in Washington. Yesterday, Mary Cheney toured the convention speaker's platform with her father.

Friends of the Cheney family insist that Mr. Cheney's comments in Davenport -- that ''people ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to'' and that recognition of same-sex marriages should be left to each state -- were heartfelt.

''I don't think it was done as a calculated thing,'' said Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming and a close friend of the Cheney family. ''I think it was done because as he travels around he saw the pain in the gay and lesbian community. Dick and Lynne Cheney are just doing what is in their heart, deeply in their heart. I am sure that the toughest thing for Dick, in my own view, was when the president embraced this constitutional amendment.''

Mr. Simpson recalled a tense confrontation on the campaign trail when one of Mr. Bush's Christian conservative backers advised Mr. Cheney to ''pray for her'' and ''to urge her away from her aberration.''

''Dick just starred at him,'' Mr. Simpson recalled. ''If you said that to Dick or Lynne Cheney, you will get a look that would sizzle your underwear, I tell you.''

That attitude may represent a shift for Lynne Cheney. Asked in 2000 television interview about having a daughter ''who has now declared that she is openly gay,'' Ms. Cheney quickly responded, ''Mary has never declared such a thing.''

Aides said Mary Cheney's role in her father's campaign could not be overstated. She is in charge of planning all his campaign events, including their location and content. She travels with him on almost every campaign trip; she's his closest confidante and adviser; and she's in charge of keeping his statements in line with the president's themes.

''Her role is vital,'' Mr. Simpson said. ''She is behind everything happening; she is the energy force.''

What's more, he said, she was an indispensable filter for noise of other advisers, pollsters and consultants. ''She clears the air,'' he said. ''She can clear out the garbage faster than anybody I have ever seen.''

Ms. Matalin said campaigning left little time for debates about policy, including the question of gay marriage.

''It is not complicated if you know what her purpose there is,'' she said. ''Her purpose in the campaign is to help her father and to try to make sure he is in sync with the president. It is not her policy to make, and it is not her father's policy to make.''